released December 4, 2022

Service With A Smile
Greasy Kid Stuff
Man Of The Year
The After The News Blues
Boomerang
East 2nd Street
Jolly Roger
Average Guy
Quiet Life
Limb From Limb
Mixed Up Girl
Out Of The House
Here When You’re There

John Kruth – Vocal, Guitar, Mandolin,
Autoharp, Banjo, Harmonica, Flute,
Bass Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Piano,
Recorder, Penny Whistle, Gong,
Synthesizer, Kazoo

With The Atomic Croutons:
Mike Kashou – Bass, Pocket Trumpet
Terry Smirl – Drums, Xylophone, Vibes
Diana Pelzer – Harmony Vocal, Melodica
Dan Johnson – Tuba

And Special Guests:
Mike Hoffman – 12 String Guitar on Service With A Smile
Brian Ritchie – Lead Guitar on Greasy Kid Stuff and Mixed-Up Girl
Jim Glynn – Percussion, Berimbau on The After The News Blues and Boomerang
Al Leonard – Whistling on Out Of The House

Engineered by Mike Hoffman
at Breezeway Studio, Waukesha, Wisconsin
Produced by John Kruth
except Quiet Life, produced by
Mike Hoffman and John Kruth
All songs written by John Kruth
except Boomerang,by John Kruth and Mark Eliasof
and Here When You’re There,
by John Kruth and Diana Pelzer
All songs c 2004 Sonic Kruth/BMI

Cover Art by Kathleen Volp
Drawing by Glenn Wolff


One for Friday: Dan Seeger - December 18, 2009
John Kruth, “Here When You’re There”
As I sit and type, the snow is piling up outside. It’s been nearly nine years since we moved from Wisconsin for parts south, so it’s been nearly that long since I’ve looked out my own window and seen a sight like this. It seems beholden upon me to select an appropriate song for the day, so naturally, I gravitate back to the artists who logged their time in the endurance test of American Dairyland winters. It was in the springtime of 1990 when I saw John Kruth play live at Milwaukee’s Shank Hall, opening up for Irish songsmith Luka Bloom (though it’s worth noting that springtime in Wisconsin can feel like winter in most other parts of the country). He was exactly what my stalwart concert companion and I needed that night: loopy, clever, and delighted with his own flagrant geek tendencies. Each of snapped up vinyl copies of his latest release, the irresistibly titled Greasy Kid Stuff, also asked for his signature on the inner sleeve, still only one of two occasions when I’ve asked for an autograph.

This was one of those albums that went into my record crate and resided lonely as different technologies dominated my listening, and since Kruth is not one of those artists whose catalog has been meticulously updated to the digital era, I went for years without hearing any of the songs that I once loved, songs that I routinely dropped into my old college radio shows. That absence continued until I lamented it online. My typed-out moans were met by my old cohort bestowing a CD copy of the album upon me, along with a few other shared favorite rarities that will undoubtedly get their Friday in the sun in this space.

So where does the snow come in? Good question. The song I’m posting here includes the following lyrics:

I was in Oshkosh, stuck in the snow
It was forty below
There was no hope in sight

That encapsulates the feel of a Wisconsin winter as well as any eighteen words ever could. And what I see outside my window this evening may be North Carolina, but it sure looks a lot like Wisconsin winter.